Modern Savings Market: Great Savings Robbery Or 'Betrayal'?Thu 27th June 2019

The language may be emotive but the loss is real. We have over the years often referred to the terribly low savings rates offered by banks and building societies to investors as the Great Savings Robbery. The point is simple: savings rates are consistently low, and borrowers find themselves paying higher rates.See some of our coverage over the past five years:

Banks and big building societies are betraying savers so they can offer borrowers cheaper mortgages. Firms say that vigorous competition in the mortgage market means they have no choice but to slash savers' rates.Halifax, Nationwide, Yorkshire Building Society and TSB have all announced rate cuts in recent weeks.At the beginning of this year, the cheapest two-year fixed-rate deal for borrowers with a 5 per cent deposit was 3.09 per cent. Since then, it has dropped by 16 per cent to 2.59 per cent.The effect is that big banks, which hold £650 billion of the total £750 billion in easy-access accounts, are cutting rates for savers.

Loan Latest And IFISA Process Guide

Money&Co. lenders have achieved an average return of more than 8 per cent gross (before we deduct our one per cent fee). Thecurrent offering from Yes You Can yields 11 per cent, has a five-year term, and is currently 90 per cent funded.

That figure is the result of over £17 million of loans facilitated on the site, as we bring individuals looking for a good return on capital together with carefully vetted small companies seeking funds for growth. Bear in mind that lenders' capital is at risk. Read warnings on site before committing capital.

Money&Co. has been lending for over 5 years and has only had one bad debt so far, representing a bad debt rate of 0.04 per cent per annum.

All loans on site are eligible to be held in a Money&Co. Innovative Finance Individual Savings Account (IFISA), up to the annual ISA limit of £20,000. Such loans offer lenders tax-free income.Our offering is an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) that can hold the peer-to-peer (P2P) business loans that Money&Co. facilitates. For the purposes of this article, the terms ISA and IFISA are interchangeable.So here's our guide to the process:

Step 1: Register as a lender. Go to the login page, and go through the process that the law requires us to effect. This means we have to do basic checks on you to comply with money-laundering and other security requirements.

Step 2: Put money into your account. This is best done by electronic transfer. We can also process paper cheques drawn in favour of Denmark Square Limited, the parent company of Money&Co.

Step 3: Buy loans in the loan market. Once you've put cash in your account it will sit there - and it won't earn interest until you've bought a piece of a loan. It's this final step that requires lenders and IFISA investors to be pro-active. Just choose some loans - all loans on the Money&Co. site can be held in an IFISA - and your money will start earning tax-free interest.

The ISA allowance for 2019/20 is unchanged from last tax year at £20,000, allowing a married couple to put £40,000 into a tax-free environment. Over three years, an investment of this scale in two Money&Co. Innovative Finance ISAs would generate £8,400 of income completely free of tax. We're assuming a 7 per cent return, net of charges and free of tax here.Once you have made your initial commitment, you might then consider diversifying - buying a spread of loans. To do this, you can go into the "loans for sale" market. All loans bought in this market also qualify for IFISA tax benefits.